SADC summit on
Zimbabwe still an option: S.Africa

CAPE
TOWN (Reuters) - Southern Africa's regional body SADC may still convene an
extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe if disagreements over a power-sharing deal
continue to hamper recovery, South Africa's deputy president said on
Wednesday.

Southern African heads of state concluded a meeting on
Tuesday in Kinshasa where they echoed a long-standing call for sanctions to
be lifted against Zimbabwe.

However, the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) suggested an extraordinary summit would not be necessary to
review a power-sharing deal meant to attract up to $10 billion in investment
to fix a battered economy.

But on Wednesday, South Africa's deputy
president Kgalema Motlanthe told parliament a special summit could happen to
help ensure accountability among Zimbabwe's political
protagonists.

"SADC leadership ... has decided that the SADC secretariat
should on an ongoing basis ... monitor resolution to all these outstanding
issues and that if that does not produce the desired results an
extraordinary summit will be convened focussing specifically on ensuring
that more fillip is added to the processes of moving Zimbabwe forward,"
Motlanthe said.

SADC, currently chaired by the Democratic Republic of
Congo, has been at the forefront of brokering the power-sharing agreement
between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and long-time adversary Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed the deal in
February to end a political crisis following disputed 2008 elections, but
the accord is beset with problems.

Tsvangirai alleges ongoing
intimidation and torture of Mugabe's political opponents, as well as
deadlock over key appointments in the central bank.

"There is really no
advantage to be gained by maintaining the status quo and Zimbabweans do
understand that, that in fact there will be no second chance, this is their
last chance to pull themselves out of the morass they find themselves in,"
Motlanthe said.

SADC
want 'sanctions' against Mugabe and cronies lifted

SADC leaders meeting in Kinshasa, the DRC, resolved at the
end of their two-day summit on Tuesday to call for 'sanctions' against
Robert Mugabe and his cronies to be lifted.

While the state media in
the country was quick to celebrate the decision by SADC as a diplomatic
triumph for Mugabe, analysts said the plea by the regional bloc represented
a false dawn for ZANU PF, as none of the Western countries were going to
lift these targeted sanctions anytime soon.'The summit noted the progress
made in the implementation of the global political agreement and called on
the international community to remove all forms of sanctions against
Zimbabwe,' SADC said in its final communiqué.This communiqué showed that
SADC is fully behind Mugabe's misrepresentation of the so-called sanctions
on Zimbabwe, which are in fact targeted on the ruling elite.New SADC
chair, President Joseph Kabila, told journalists that considering the
progress that had been made in Zimbabwe it was now time that sanctions were
lifted. Kabila, who took over as chairperson of SADC during the summit, said
if sanctions were not lifted, they would become an impediment to putting the
political agreement into practice.Mugabe reportedly impressed on his fellow
leaders that Tsvangirai and the MDC have not done enough to have the
restrictions lifted. But MDC-T senator for Harare East, Obert Gutu, said
that no right-thinking person could assume that Tsvangirai would be able to
just pick up the phone and instruct the international community to lift the
travel restrictions and restrictive measures on the ruling elite.'The
MDC is raising genuine and legitimate transgressions of the GPA. Both Gono
and Tomana were unilaterally appointed by Mugabe in late 2008, long after
the GPA had been solemnised on 15th September 2008,' Gutu said.

'For
anyone to therefore argue that Gono and Tomana are not outstanding issues of
the GPA is to completely miss the point. This type of sterile argument is
completely lacking in both factual and legal support. This argument ought to
be dismissed with the contempt that it deserves,' Gutu added.Former SADC
chair Jacob Zuma kicked off the meeting on Monday by asking Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to end a row over the power-sharing pact,
that is holding up vital foreign aid to repair Zimbabwe's battered
economy.Reports initially suggested that SADC would hold a special
summit on Zimbabwe, so that the situation could be discussed in depth. But
SADC made a U-turn saying it would ask the bloc's Troika on Politics,
Defence and Security (a much less influential organ) to review the
cooperation between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.Speaking
to SW Radio Africa from Kinshasa on Wednesday, human rights lawyer Dewa
Mavhinga said without fundamental reforms by Mugabe, there will be no reason
for the international community to unlock aid or lift the targeted
sanctions.

'It's a hollow victory for Mugabe. As for SADC it is an
embarrassment for the regional body because it all calls into question the
credibility of the leaders in the face of the international community. The
leaders have failed the Zimbabwean people once again by failing to take a
very strong stance against something that human rights defenders call a rape
of democracy in Zimbabwe,' Mavhinga said.Kenneth Meshoe, the leader of
the African Christian Democratic Party in South Africa, criticized SADC and
his country for supporting Mugabe at the just ended summit.Addressing
the South African parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday, Meshoe said SADC as
a regional bloc had failed the people of Zimbabwe by focusing on protecting
and defending Mugabe. He said the bloc should have demanded that Mugabe
respects the rule of law, justice, democracy and human rights in his
country.The call by the SADC leaders comes amid deadlocked negotiations
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai on key political appointments and ongoing
concerns over human rights abuses.

The parties remain deadlocked over
the appointment of the Central Bank chief, blamed for presiding over the
collapse of the local currency, and the attorney general who continues to
prosecute MDC supporters despite guarantees of political freedoms in the
unity accord.

In a press statement on Tuesday Tsvangirai urged SADC
leaders to closely monitor the progress of his power-sharing deal with
Mugabe. He said he hoped all outstanding issues would be dealt with as a
matter of urgency by the Troika, which will be chaired by the Mozambican
President Armando Guebuza.

MDC:
SADC reluctant to approach Zim issue head-on

The MDC were dealt a huge blow Tuesday when the SADC Heads of State
summit in Kinshasa, ended with nothing but calls from the regional bloc for
the removal of 'sanctions against Zimbabwe', without any pre-conditions.
SADC did not approve the MDC's call for a special summit on Zimbabwe, even
though the political parties remain deadlocked on a number of issues and the
Global Political Agreement has yet to be fully implemented. Instead the
block recommended a meeting of the less influential Troika on Politics,
Defence and Security.Reacting to the outcome of the Kinshasa summit, MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said: "There is still an inconclusive structure
of government, governors are not yet appointed, the Gono and Tomana issue
are still not concluded but there is reluctance by SADC to approach things
head-on.""There is burying of the head in the sand and the decisions and
choices (being made) look at one side and listen to one side without looking
at this matter objectively. We have outstanding issues as a country. They
are not MDC issues, they are national issues that are supposed to be dealt
with for purposes of injecting confidence in the nation and also to the
entire international community."Chamisa added; 'It is disheartening,
discouraging and disappointing that we have an ostrich mentality of burying
the head in the sand,' and that 'kid gloving' is fast becoming the conduct
of leaders in Africa.The MDC had appealed to SADC to put pressure on Robert
Mugabe to implement all the provisions of the GPA, including the swearing in
of their Deputy Agricultural Minister, Roy Bennett.But the state
controlled Herald newspaper revealed on Wednesday that soon after the
Kinshasa summit Mugabe said Bennett's appointment could not be considered a
"make or break issue" for the inclusive Government and insisted he is not
prepared to swear him in. He said the MDC would be better off finding
another candidate for the position. Bennett is facing terrorism and sabotage
charges, which he says are part of a long term campaign by ZANU PF to
victimise him.

According to the Herald, Mugabe said he was not prepared
'as a matter of principle to swear into office someone who was facing
criminal charges.'They went on to quote Mugabe as saying he was 'baffled by
the fascination MDC-T had with the appointment of this particular white man
with the kind of history he has into government as if they are short of
manpower'."Chamisa said this issue is not about personalities but about
principles, as each political party is supposed to submit officials of their
own choice. "The MDC is very blind on skin colour, blind on tribe, blind on
issues of gender and this is why we find it very difficult to even respond
to such racist remarks."He also castigated the Herald for becoming a
'big herald' of lies and printing racist propaganda, in violation of the
GPA.Meanwhile, observers say the latest utterances by Mugabe and the general
approach by SADC shows the danger of forming an inclusive government with
ZANU PF, before resolving the outstanding issues.If anyone was hoping
that SADC would, one day soon, hold a special summit on Zimbabwe, Mugabe's
spokesperson George Charamba made it very clear that is never going to
happen.Also quoted in the Herald he said: "SADC is not an inter-party body,
it is an inter-governmental organisation. An extraordinary summit is only
convened by member states to deal with an urgent and threatening issue. The
remarkable progress registered by the inclusive Government is far from being
a menace and is in fact a happy occurrence in which SADC leaders are
celebrating and will not call an extraordinary summit for."

Damning
report released in Kinshasa

HARARE - Zimbabwe's largest non-governmental organisation
has released a damning report which accuses the Zimbabwe National Army of
maintaining troop deployments in rural areas, six months after the formation
of the inclusive government.

In the report which was released as
regional leaders gathered in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) to receive a report from SADC chairman Jacob Zuma on progress in
Zimbabwe, the NGOs said the army had maintained structures of violence in
the countryside, causing unnecessary panic and a state of
siege.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, pooling over 350 civil society
organisations, said it had information that over 70 top military officers
remained in the provinces where they were deployed after President Mugabe
and Zanu-PF suffered a devastating electoral loss just after the March 29
poll last year.

The NGO called on the six-month old inclusive
government to immediately get the army out of the countryside and recall
them to barracks.

About 200 senior serving army officers, deployed
countrywide on April 8 after President Mugabe had suffered historic defeat,
are widely believed to have orchestrated the massive wave of political
violence that engulfed the country, with some of them being fingered
directly in several instances where gross rights violations happened. The
list containing the names of all the officers involved was published by The
Zimbabwe Times in April after it was leaked by disgruntled
officers.

The officers commanded troops, comprising war veterans and
Zanu-PF militants, including the ruthless so-called Green Bombers. The
operation was allegedly spearheaded by Zimbabwe Air Force Commander,
Perrence Shiri with the assistance of Maj. Gen. Nick Dube.

Defence
Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga was the overall commander of
the operation. He was assisted by Maj. Gen. Last Mugova and Col. S.
Mudambo.

In the report, titled; "Can apples be reaped from a thorn tree?"
the NGO says military officers committed gross human rights abuses with
impunity while acting as political commissars for Zanu-PF.

"The media
environment, legislative environment, the militarization of the villages,
State and its critical institutions created during the sham election seem to
remain intact, seven months after the formation of the inclusive government
of Zimbabwe," reads part of the 67-page report launched last Friday by
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition chairperson Irene Petras in
Harare.

"There is no clear evidence that the soldiers who were
deployed to different communities during the violent poll have returned to
the barracks. The historic vigilisation of the military had catastrophic
consequences on human rights in the country."

The coalition said
there were reports of other bases being set up in some areas and further
deployment of the so-called "youth officers" from the Ministry of
Youth.

"The inclusive government authorities - especially the Ministries
of Defence and Home Affairs- are challenged to prove that the military have
moved out of the villages and communities where they stand accused of
committing human rights abuses with impunity while they acted as political
commissars of the then ruling Zanu-PF party, outside the provisions of the
Zimbabwe Defence Act and the Constitution of Zimbabwe," the report
says.

The report comes amid reports of the murder of another Movement for
Democratic Change activist, bludgeoned to death by soldiers based at Mufiri
Business Centre in Shurugwi in the Midlands Province on August 30. The
deceased was accused of playing an MDC song in a bar.

The soldiers
also rounded up his drinking mates and accused them of fanning hatred in the
community. Godknows Dzoro Mtshakazi died after he was tortured by the
soldiers who burnt him with plastic.

A European Union team of
government ministers and senior officials is to travel to Zimbabwe this
weekend to meet President Robert Mugabe and to explore the prospects for the
country's gradual international rehabilitation after years of isolation,
sanctions and blacklists.

The Swedish and Spanish development ministers
and the European Commission's top aid official, Karel De Gucht, are to push
Mugabe to come good on his pledges to Morgan Tsvangirai, prime minister and
former opposition leader, under the power-sharing national unity pact struck
last February.

The sensitive EU mission, which Sweden, the current EU
president, sought to keep under wraps, is the most senior to go to Harare
since sanctions were slapped on the Mugabe regime seven years ago. It
follows demands on Tuesday from southern African leaders for all
international sanctions on Zimbabwe to be lifted.

EU officials
stressed that it was too early to talk of lifting penalties. The British
government, the harshest EU critic of Mugabe, is believed to support the
Swedish-led attempt to gauge the scope for better relations, but would not
yet back a relaxation of the sanctions.

"There is an urgent need for all
parties to fulfil their obligations. By doing this, the EU can once again
fully re-engage with Zimbabwe and help the country in its return to
normality and prosperity," said De Gucht. "This is a critical time for
Zimbabwe and the weight of responsibility falls squarely on the country's
leaders to deliver urgent political, economic and social
progress."

The EU is the biggest donor to Zimbabwe, supplying around
¤90m a year, a figure that could rise steeply if the country's human rights
and rule of law records were improved, as intended by the February pact that
put Mugabe's Zanu-PF in a power-sharing administration with Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change.

European governments believe there
has been some improvement on the economic front in Zimbabwe, but progress in
the political and human rights spheres is inadequate.

In 2002, in a
policy pushed by Britain, the EU put Mugabe and many of his associates on a
blacklist, proscribing travel to Europe. When the Portuguese invited Mugabe
to an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon in 2007, Gordon Brown boycotted
it.

More than 200 Mugabe associates and 40 companies linked with his
regime are on the blacklist or subject to financial, trading and bank
account sanctions.

The European officials are to meet Mugabe on
Saturday in Harare after seeing Tsvangirai in Bulawayo. Zimbabwe's prime
minister visited Brussels in June in an attempt to restart relations with
Europe.

Sweden's prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, is to hold a
Europe-South Africa summit in Cape Town on Friday where President Jacob Zuma
is expected to press for an end to European sanctions on
Zimbabwe.

European diplomats stressed that it was too early to speak of
"big offers" to Harare. A summit of southern African leaders in Kinshasa on
Tuesday demanded that "the international community remove all forms of
sanctions against Zimbabwe".But a European diplomat in Brussels said: "We're
not going there offering concessions at this stage."

The southern
African leaders argue that the power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe will not be
properly implemented until sanctions are lifted while the Europeans say they
cannot be lifted until the pact is properly observed.

Feuding between the
rival sides in Zimbabwe is imperilling the February pact and holding up
chronically needed foreign aid in a country whose economy was driven to
complete collapse by the Mugabe regime.

In a further sign of an end to
isolation, however, the International Monetary Fund last week released more
than half a billion dollars for Zimbabwe, the first such funds in a
decade.

The Tsvangirai camp is worried that the money could be purloined
by the Mugabe side, particularly since the head of the central bank, Gideon
Gono, is a close Mugabe aide identified with the economic meltdown. Among
other demands on Mugabe, the Europeans are to demand that Gono be replaced
along with the country's attorney-general.

Zimbabwe
crisis key as EU meets new SA govt

South Africa's
new government will hold its first meeting with the European Union Friday as
regional pressure mounts for the bloc to lift sanctions against troubled
neighbour Zimbabwe.

The meeting, expected to forge ties between
the new leadership and the EU, comes amid ongoing discord in Zimbabwe's
fragile unity government with President Robert Mugabe blaming Western
sanctions for impeding progress.

The Southern African Development
Community (SADC), tasked with mediating Zimbabwe's political crisis,
concluded a summit this week by calling on the international community "to
remove all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe."

EU ambassador in
Pretoria Lodewijk Briet said the process of evaluating the situation in
Zimbabwe was underway and targeted sanctions against certain government
officials and companies would be lifted "when it is
opportune."

It was also mulling funding requirements by the
cash-strapped nation.

"But we cannot whitewash the human rights
violations. We did not do it in SA (during apartheid) and we will not do it
in Zimbabwe. It will not happen if there is no movement on the other side,
it takes two to dance a tango," Briët told AFP.

A spokesman
for South African President Jacob Zuma said discussions on Zimbabwe would
cover progress made in the country since his predecessor Thabo Mbeki
negotiated the unity government formed in February.

"I will
therefore imagine that if and when the Zimbabwe issue does come up the
President will raise the issue of sanctions ... with a particular focus to
get EU countries to consider their position on the lifting of sanctions,"
Vincent Magwenya told AFP.

South Africa on Wednesday defended
the regional call for sanctions to be dropped with Zuma's deputy Kgalema
Motlanthe telling parliament that it was a "a very responsible
approach".

"This call for the lifting of sanctions is not aimed
at protecting and defending President Robert Mugabe as an individual. It is
meant to attract necessary investments into Zimbabwe so that their economic
recovery plan can take effect," he said.

The 85-year-old
Mugabe and his close allies are the subject of travel bans and asset freezes
imposed by Western states.

Zuma took office in April and this
will be the first time he hosts the summit with the EU.

"This
is going to be the first Zuma presidency meeting at summit level so it is
about introducing the new ministers to the EU delegation," EU-Africa expert
Romy Chevallier of the South African Institute of International Affairs
said.

"This is is literally a symbolic meeting showing the
importance of the relationship."

The EU remains South
Africa's most important partner for trade and development, making up for 35
percent of the country's trade.

With environmentally concerned
Sweden as the current EU president, climate change was high on the agenda
and the impacts of the economic crisis would also take center
stage.

"There is a lot more emphasis on non-traditional areas of
co-operation," Chevallier said, whereas trade and development had always
been the cornerstone of relations between the partners.

South
Africa's continuing concerns over the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs) with other countries in the region will also be discussed. Pretoria
says they interfere with the regional customs union.

"We are not
far from agreeing (but) there are issues of principles" dear to South
Africa, said Briet.

Motlanthe told parliament Wednesday the
regional customs union would meet "to make sure we interact with the EU as a
region rather than just as weak and individual
countries."

Namibia has also refused to sign the agreements
already inked by Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho and
Swaziland.

Farmers
outraged as SADC remains silent on Zim snub of Tribunal

Zimbabwe's beleaguered farming community have been left
outraged this week by the total silence from leaders of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), over the government's snub of the region's
human rights court.

SADC leaders, gathered in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo this week, have made absolutely no mention of the latest move
by the government, which flies in the face of the rules and standards of the
regional bloc. It was revealed last week that the government has decided to
pull out of the SADC Tribunal, after Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa
declared the Tribunal 'unlawful'. Chinamasa said the Government would not be
bound to any decisions already made, or any future rulings by the regional
court, in a move that could close off all possible legal avenues for
Zimbabwe's beleaguered commercial farmers to seek redress.

"As we are
unaware of any other basis upon which the Tribunal can exercise jurisdiction
over Zimbabwe, we hereby advise that, henceforth, we will not appear before
the Tribunal and neither will we respond to any action or suit instituted or
be pending against the Republic of Zimbabwe before the Tribunal," Chinamasa
reportedly wrote in a letter sent to the registrar of the Tribunal last
month.

The move has been described as a last-ditch attempt to avoid
possible sanction by SADC, with analysts arguing that Zimbabwe would
effectively be withdrawing from SADC if it refuses to adhere to the court's
rulings. As a SADC member and signatory to the SADC protocol, Zimbabwe is
bound by law to respect the rulings, and as such it was expected that the
'pull-out' would see the government facing some form of criticism by SADC
leaders.But no such criticism or even mention of the move has been
forthcoming, with SADC once again proving its long-standing loyalty to
Robert Mugabe.

Chegutu farmer Ben Freeth, whose home was burnt down last
week in what was widely believed to be an arson attack by land invaders,
told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that he is appalled that there has been no
mention of the move, which he said further threatens the future of
agriculture in Zimbabwe.

"We have yet another disaster season on the
horizon," Freeth said. "Unless the government or SADC does something, things
will continue to spiral. The government can no longer pretend that nothing
is wrong in the country."

Freeth is one of more than 70 farmers who took
their case against the government to the SADC Tribunal. Led by Freeth's
father-in-law, Mike Campbell, the farmers walked away victorious last year
after a landmark ruling declared the land 'reform' programme illegal and
discriminatory. The government was ordered to protect the farmer's right to
their land, in a move that was meant to offer the farmers legal protection
from future land attacks.

But the government ignored the ruling, with
Mugabe earlier this year going as far as to call the Tribunal's orders 'null
and void'. The dictator went on to condone the renewed and ongoing offensive
against the remaining commercial farmers, which has seen more than 80 farms
forcibly seized, this year alone. As a result, the farmers returned to the
Tribunal to seek an implementation order on the government. The court ruled
the Zimbabwe government in contempt and referred the matter to this week's
summit in Kinshasa. But it was not addressed at the summit.

The
farmers' lawyers have dismissed the move to 'pull out' of the Tribunal, but
Freeth on Wednesday argued that, regardless, SADC is duty bound to take some
kind of action. He said he is 'puzzled' by the prevailing silence by SADC
leaders on a matter that threatens the regional bloc's own
reputation.

"In any other part of the world this situation would be dealt
with as a matter of priority, but SADC just won't deal with it and it is
very strange," Freeth said.

Freeth was speaking on the eve of a
meeting in Johannesburg Thursday evening, set to deliberate of the future of
agriculture in Zimbabwe and the role of SADC in taking the region forward.
The meeting, at which Freeth is the key note speaker, aims to provoke a
"different kind of thinking on how to rethink the Zimbabwean situation;
other SADC member states in conflict at the moment and what we as a people
can do to get Governments to respect the Rule of Law and deliberate on what
we can do as a people to make our states and institutions work. Our value
system as a people has to be redefined and our way of life has to improve
but that can only happen when our regional bodies and our states begin to
work and work for the people."

Lack of funds stalls Zim land audit

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe's
power-sharing government is unable to audit President Robert Mugabe's
chaotic and often violent land reforms because it does not have cash to pay
for the exercise, Lands Minister Herbert Murerwa told ZimOnline on
Tuesday.

"Lack of funding is militating against the land audit. The
ministry has not received the funds, about US$31million, to conduct the land
audit that is expected to take six to nine months," Murerwa
said.

Mugabe's programme to seize white-owned farmland for redistribution
to landless blacks is blamed for plunging once self-sufficient Zimbabwe into
food shortages after Harare failed to support black villagers resettled on
former white farms with inputs to maintain production.

The coalition
government was supposed to have this month begun auditing the controversial
land reforms to weed out top allies of Mugabe who grabbed most of the best
farms seized from whites with some ending up with as many as six farms each
against the government's stated one-man-one-farm policy.

It was hoped
that the audit that is part of several unfulfilled provisions from last
year's power-sharing agreement between Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara would lay the groundwork for
a more orderly and equitable land redistribution programme.

But Murerwa
said an application to Treasury last month for funds for the audit yielded
nothing and it was unclear when the government might be able to raise cash
for the exercise.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti was not immediately
available for comment on the matter. But Biti, from Tsvangirai's MDC party,
has in the past said the unity government is broke and virtually unable to
fund anything else other than salaries and wages for its
workers.

Murerwa's disclosure of the coalition government's failure to
kick-start the land audit comes as an exercise to write a new constitution
for Zimbabwe that is the cornerstone of reforms the administration must
implement during its two-year lifespan has ground to a halt because of a
lack of resources and also because of political squabbling.

A special
parliamentary committee tasked to lead the constitutional reform process
said this week that it was unable to carry out its work because the
government has not given it money and other resources.

While failure
by Mugabe's ZANU PF party to submit names of people to head some of the
sub-committees of the constitutional committee means the constitution-making
exercise cannot get started even if funds were made available.

Lack
of resources mainly because major Western governments have refused to
provide direct financial support to the Harare government because of the
slow pace of political reforms could cripple the administration that is also
threatened by endless squabbles between ZANU PF and the MDC - its two main
pillars.

A summit of southern African leaders that ended in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday urged Zimbabwe's political
parties to work to remove obstacles standing in the way of the unity
government. - ZimOnline

World Bank helping pay PM's office workers: Aide

BULAWAYO - The World Bank
is helping pay salaries for some workers in Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's office, a top aide has said but denied charges that the Premier
had set up parallel structures to a unity government with President Robert
Mugabe.

Minister of State in Tsvangirai's office, Gorden Moyo said the
staff being paid with money from the World Bank were doing work that was
benefiting the entire government, adding that the salaries support should be
seen as technical support from the Bretton Woods institution.

Moyo,
who was responding to questions from reporters on Monday whether it was true
that some staff under Tsvangirai's office were being paid by the World Bank,
said: "It is a scheme of government . . . we are getting (human) resources
through a scheme of (provision of) technical assistants through the World
Bank. These people are being paid through the World Bank."

Writing in the
state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper, independent parliamentarian Jonathan
Moyo accused Tsvangirai of setting up parallel government structures that he
said were manned by staff paid by foreign governments and
organisations.

But Minister Moyo said the offices set up under the
Premier's department were working to support the unity government and not to
compete against it. - ZimOnline

Released
Zimbabwe inmates relate prison horror

HARARE - The spotlight was on Chikurubi Maximum Security
Prison on the outskirts of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, as 1500
prisoners were freed on a presidential amnesty decree.

The released
prisoners said they were confined in overcrowded cells, measuring 9m by 4m.
Typically speaking there are 25 men per cell.

Each day the men are
confined to their squalid cells between the hours of 3:30pm and 7:00am. Four
to five times a week they are also locked up for the guards lunch break,
between the hours of 11:30am and 1:00pm.

zim NET radio was told there
were no beds and so the prisoners have to sleep on mats spread out over the
crowded cell floor.

Some inmates refuse to wash, which results in
blankets becoming lice infested. There is a predominance of HIV positive,
practising homosexuals within this rat and lice infested prison.

The
cells are shared with people in the terminal stages of AIDS, Tuberculosis,
Herpes and other highly infectious diseases, as well as some prisoners who
are mentally ill. This was apparent on prisoners freed Tuesday. Most of them
were sick to the point of death.

Many of the infected prisoners were
unable to control their bodily functions. They described scenes of prison
floors and blankets being contaminated with body fluids; pus, phlegm, blood,
urine, faeces.

Human rights groups said this was in contravention of
Article 24 of the International Bill of Human Rights, which covers the state
providing a safe environment.

The sanitary conditions they were
forced to live under are a terrible threat to their well being. Each month
they receives [ends here]

Mugabe
fans hail 'anti-Zimbabwe flop'

PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe's supporters in Zimbabwe, led by the state media, were
yesterday celebrating the failure of the Southern African Development
Community to discuss the country's problems.

"Anti-Zim lobby flops"
screamed the headline of the state-owned Herald.

State radio also
made a big song and dance about how Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had
left the DR Congo summit after "he realised Zimbabwe was not going to be
discussed".

The only mention Zimbabwe received at the summit was
during Monday's speech by the outgoing SADC chairman, President Jacob Zuma,
who said the "SADC ... remains committed to working to encourage further
progress".

All the hype about how the SADC would get tough with Mugabe
amounted to nothing when Zimbabwe was dropped from the
agenda.

Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, had
apparently lobbied SADC member states to hear his
complaints.

He had hoped that the SADC - as the sponsors and
guarantors of the unity government - would force Mugabe to accept real
change.

Zimbabweans
Rubbish SADC's Sanctions Call

BULAWAYO, Sept. 09 (IPS)
- Southern African leaders have once again failed the people of Zimbabwe by
making a show of support for the country's long-serving dictator.

The
unresolved issues plaguing Zimbabwe's coalition government is set to drag on
after southern African leaders once again failed to call President Robert
Mugabe to book for reneging on his coalition promises.

The Southern
African Development Community (SADC) leaders instead supported Mugabe's Zanu
PF party and called for the lifting of sanctions which the regional bloc
says were imposed on the country by the international community. Analysts
say this show of support for the dictator is likely to harden Mugabe as he
digs in his heels refusing to bow to pressure from Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to honour his part of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) that led to the formation of the
coalition.

Mugabe continues to stall the swearing in of Roy Bennet, MDC's
Deputy Agriculture Minister designate, insisting Bennet has a pending
criminal case before the courts which must first be decided before Bennet is
sworn into cabinet. Mugabe has also stalled the appointments of both a new
attorney general and a central bank governor.

He instead insists the
MDC must pressure "its Western allies" and call for the lifting of
sanctions. Mugabe has accused the MDC of calling on the West to impose the
sanctions on the country as part of what he has called an "illegal regime
change agenda".

Many Zimbabweans have looked up to the SADC leaders to
reign in Mugabe to honour his collation government promises.

But they
have been disappointed by the show of support for Mugabe at a SADC meeting
currently being held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC).

"We are of course disappointed because it has become obvious
that SADC will not solve our problems for us," said Tinashe Zulu, a primary
school teacher who is one of many who downed their chalks last week pressing
for salary increments.

"We have always said it - African leaders fear
Mugabe for some reason, and for anyone to expect anything from them is
wishful thinking. We just give our fate to the gods," Zulu
complained.

Zulu was echoing the frustrations of many in a country where
humanitarian agencies say hundreds of thousands of people are crossing the
boarders into neighbouring countries in search of work.

In a
communiqué at the end of the Kinshasa meeting where DRC president Joseph
Kabila - a close ally of Mugabe - assumed the rotating SADC chair, the
leaders of the regional group said they noted "the progress made in the
implementation of the global political agreement and called on the
international community to remove all forms of sanctions against
Zimbabwe".

This, however, was in stark contrast to calls by the MDC that
little progress was being done by the coalition towards fully implementing
the GPA. Hardliners in Mugabe's camp have been accused of stalling for time
as they look ahead for the next polls whenever they are called at the
expiration of the coalition's term.

"This is the nature of these
nationalist parties," said Effie Ncube of the Matebeleland Constitutional
Reform Agenda.

"They rally behind fellow leaders against the West and go
on about imperialism and nothing is mentioned about bettering the lives of
people back home. They claim sanctions are harming the so-called ordinary
man but forgetting that all attempts by the ordinary man to choose a
government of his own has been met with violent suppressions. All that does
not matter to them," Ncube told IPS.

Zimbabwe's long time rivals
Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a coalition in February this year, but for
Mugabe's Zanu PF party, the condition has been that the MDC must call for
the lifting of what it calls "illegal" sanctions on Zimbabwe.

This is
despite recent signs that international money lending institutions were
easing their tough stance on assisting the government toward economic
reconstruction.

Last week the International Monetary Fund, which
suspended funding in 1999 after Zimbabwe failed to service its loans,
injected a half billion dollar loan as part of the country's economic
recovery efforts.

There is already jostling between MDC secretary general
and Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Zanu PF appointee Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono over who will control the funds.

But the sentiment on the
streets has always been that there are no sanctions imposed on the country
but rather they have been imposed on Mugabe and more than 100 of his party
loyalists. They have been banned from travelling to Europe and America by
respective governments which accuse them of, among other things, presiding
over gross human rights abuses and electoral fraud.

"I have never
believed the country is under sanctions," said James Chuma, a vendor in the
city's central business district who is among many who play cat and mouse
with the police (street vending is illegal in Zimbabwe) in a country where
labour unions claim there is over 90 percent unemployment.

"They closed
down productive farms and factories and in my rural home where our parents
worked peacefully with white farmers, the people are suffering and for me
this has nothing to do with sanctions even though I'm not educated I know
enough not to believe everything the government says," Chuma told
IPS.

"It is tough here and it is these people who want to rule forever
who blame their failure on someone else," said an emotional
Chuma.

But as the impasse on the so-called outstanding issues of the GPA
continues with SADC leaders once again failing to push Mugabe to comply with
the spirit of the GPA, there are concerns that Zanu PF will continue using
the sanctions card to blame the failure of the government of national unity
on Tsvangirai.

Call
for urgent release of Marange report

HARARE - The executive committee of the World
Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has called upon the Kimberley Process
to release its much-anticipated report and recommendations about the
Zimbabwe diamond mining sector as soon as possible.

The WFDB
executive committee met at the London Diamond Bourse on Monday, September 7,
2009.

A Kimberley Process review team visited Zimbabwe in August. The
team met with senior government and mining officials, and visited the
Marange diamond fields, where there have been reports of human rights
violations and illegal diamond mining and trading activities.

In a
statement on Tuesday WFDB president Avi Paz said: "We have been following
the situation in Zimbabwe with considerable concern and we discussed the
situation in the country at length.

"We fully support the efforts of the
Kimberley Process to arrive at the situation that first and foremost defends
the safety and well being of Zimbabwe citizens living in those areas where
diamonds are located, and at the same time abides by the principle that
their long-term economic and social welfare will be best served by the
proper and ethical use of Zimbabwe's diamond resources.

"Given the
uncertainty that currently exists regarding the situation in Zimbabwe, we
call upon the Kimberley Process to expedite the release of its report and
recommendations. The WFDB will do all that it can to support the efforts of
the Kimberley Process to bring about a successful resolution of the
situation,"

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe lost US$400 million worth of potential
revenue through the smuggling of gems from the diamond fields of Marange in
eastern Zimbabwe, the Reserve bank governor, Gideon Gono, has
said

Gono said massive losses had been incurred over the past nine months
when thousands of Zimbabweans flocked to Marange in a frenzied search for
wealth. It is the first time the government has quantified the total
estimated loss to the nation incurred by the diamond rush.

"We are
our own worst enemies," said Gono.

"There is no other area where
implementation inertia is as glaring as that of the area of diamond
mining."

Last year the government allowed villagers in the impoverished
and arid Marange area to start mining diamonds despite the area being under
a claim by an international mining organisation.

As a result
thousands of fortune seekers from all over Zimbabwe and neighbouring
countries flocked to Marange to plunder the diamond fields.

The police
and army are reported to have since sealed off the area, but Gono said the
place was still luring people, including senior officials from
banks.

Gono said: "Some people now find it more profitable to go and
herd cattle in Marange because you can just collect a few pieces of diamond
as you herd the cattle.

"People are making lots of
money."

International buyers from various countries are reported to have
descended on Marange to buy the precious stones from miners.

This is
in breach of Zimbabwe's mining laws that require all precious minerals to be
sold to the state-run Minerals Marketing Corporation.

Kimberley
Process to Decide on Zimbabwe Membership in November

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Kimberly Process, a global body
created to curb the trade in gems to fund conflict, will decide in November
on whether it will remove Zimbabwe from the accord, A Kpandel Fayia,
Liberia's deputy planning and development minister, said.

The
organization will base its decision on a report of its review mission that
visited the southern African country in May, when it investigated claims of
diamond smuggling and related violence, Fayia, who led the mission, said
today in an interview in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.

On Aug. 5,
Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu said his country is committed to
adhering to the process's rules on diamond trading. The World Diamond
Council said on Aug. 26 that it will call for the removal of Zimbabwe from
the Kimberley Process unless it controls the supply of diamonds from its
Marange field.

Marange was taken from African Consolidated Resources Plc
and handed to the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp. in December
2006. At the time as many as 20,000 illegal miners had swarmed onto the
property in eastern Zimbabwe and the country's central bank said smuggling
of gems was costing the nation $40 million a week.

On June 26, Human
Rights Watch accused Zimbabwe's security forces of having killed more than
200 people when the government drove illegal workers off the Marange field
last year.

Zimbabwe produced about 695,000 carats of diamonds worth $31
million in 2007, according to the most-recent data from the Kimberley
Process.

Court
withdraws rape charges against MP

MUTARE - Trevor Saruwaka, the Member of Parliament for
Mutasa South, walked out of the Mutare Magistrates' Courts a free man on
Monday after rape charges against levelled against him were withdrawn by the
regional magistrate.

Magistrate Livingstone Chipadze withdrew the
case after the State failed to submit substantive evidence against the
legislator. The case had already beem dismissed by the Movement for
Democratic Change as trumped-up. Saruwaka was elected to Parliament on a
ticket of the mainstream MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.

He was arrested after his election victory last year and
spent more than a month in remand prison.

He became one of the
several MDC MPs, officials and supporters who have been arrested and slapped
with charges viewed by their party as mostly trumped-up and politically
motivated in a bid by President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to whittle
down the MDC's majority in Parliament.

The MDC alleges that the
Attorney-General's office has connived with Zanu-PF in the campaign to
undermine the party through vexatious prosecution of its
officials.

The MP for Gutu East, Ransome Makamure, was recently
acquitted on corruption charges after a Harare Magistrate threw out the
evidence submitted by a State witness.

Zimbabwe Attorneys Honored for Human Rights Work

American Bar Association
recognizes efforts to uphold rule of law (596)

The following article was
produced and originally published by the American Bar Association's Rule of Law
Initiative. Additional information on the initiative's programs is available
onwww.abarol.org (http://www.abarol.org/).

August 2009

ABA ROLI Honors Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights with its 2009 Rule of Law Award

On August 1, the ABA Rule of Law
Initiative (ABA ROLI) awarded Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) its 2009
Rule of Law Award. Representing her organization, ZLHR Executive Director Irene
Petras attended the Rule of Law Luncheon and Award Ceremony in Chicago and
received the award from ABA President H. Thomas Wells, Jr. The award recognizes
the ZLHR's efforts to uphold the rule of law and to fight for the human rights
of Zimbabwean citizens.

In his introductory remarks,
William Taft, IV, ABA ROLI board chair, said that each year the ABA ROLI looks
throughout the world "to identify a person, a group of people or an organization
that embodies our values and that has acted valiantly in pursuing them to
receive our Rule of Law Award." He said the efforts of ZLHR were worth
celebrating.

Founded in 1996, ZLHR is a
non-profit human rights organization that aims, through the observance of the
rule of law, to encourage and foster a robust human rights culture at all levels
of Zimbabwean society. It has 14 full-time lawyers and a membership of 170,
composed of 130 professional lawyers and 40 law students from the University of
Zimbabwe.

In her keynote remarks, Petras
said, "Human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe have contributed-and continue to
contribute-immensely to the struggle for democratization and observance of the
rule of law in our country." She said that the lawyers decided to fight for the
rule of law though they could "have left the country for greener pastures at the
first signs of trouble".

Petras explained the challenges
the lawyers have to face and the risks they take in pursuing their mission.
"Some have been subjected to character assassination in the state-controlled
media, or assaulted by police in peaceful protests against the harassment of the
profession. Others have been abducted by youth militias from their offices,
beaten and tortured in bases, only to reappear bruised and battered after
several days of incommunicado detention," she said. "Lawyers have had to deal
with threats to their own lives and safety, as well as that of their families
and colleagues."

Though there were hopes for the
situation in Zimbabwe to improve following the formation of an inclusive
government in February of this year, Irene said, "Democratization continues to
prove a challenge." No repressive laws have been repealed or amended, while the
ordeals of human rights defenders have not subsided.

With the road ahead "long and
difficult," the ZLHR is continuing its efforts for a comprehensive legislative
reform. Petras said, "We will remain as tenacious as we have been thus far in
our history so as to ensure that the people of Zimbabwe remain at the center of
all transitional and nation-building processes and are their true
beneficiaries."

Petras thanked the ABA and ABA
ROLI for acknowledging the efforts of the ZLHR. She said, "It encourages us to
see that our efforts do not go in vain, and that people are watching, and our
peers in the profession are standing with us during these testing times for the
legal profession in Zimbabwe."

More than 350 people, including
ABA and ABA ROLI leadership, special guests and rule of law supporters, attended
the luncheon.

(Distributed by the Bureau of
International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web
site:http://www.america.gov)

The Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA) has noted with concern the continued and deliberate
inconsistent billing system of the City of Harare’s department of water as more
residents are receiving unjustified and exorbitant bills. The Association has
received numerous reports from residents who are disgruntled by the inflated
water bills that they are getting from the Council.

Residents have complained that
the Harare Water officials have not been conducting any meter readings; a
situation that has seen residents getting bills that indicate exaggerated water
consumption units. These revelations come after CHRA embarked on an awareness
campaign encouraging residents to read their water meters so as to avoid cases
of being overcharged by the City of Harare. A Belvedere resident who requested
anonymity approached CHRA on the 3rd of September 2009 raising
concerns over the exorbitant water bills that he had been receiving from Harare
Water. This man in particular read his water meter on a monthly basis anddiscovered that the water consumption units
indicated on his bill and the actual meter readings had a variance of more than
750 units. This revealed that the Harare Water had for the past few months
overcharged him water that was worth 17 months. As a result of reading his water
meter these months were credited into his account and he will therefore not be
paying any water bills till the 17 months have lapsed.

This case is one among many where
the Harare Water has been overcharging residents. One wonders whether the
Council is deliberately conning residents of their hard earned money while
purchasing expensive luxury vehicles or this is a serious case of negligence.
Such carelessness and recklessness cannot be tolerated, especially considering
the fact that the Council has chosen not to sympathize with default ratepayers
regardless of the fact that municipal services have been next to non-existent
for the past few years.

Meanwhile, Harare is facing
threats of a resurge of the 2008 cholera outbreak that killed over 3000 people
as the rainy season is approaching. Instead of dealing with the underlying
causes of the disease such as refuse collection and the refurbishing of the
sewer systems in the wards, the Council has embarked on a water disconnection
spree despite a Cabinet standing order and World Health Organization (WHO) water
guidelines that condemn water disconnections as a means to induce bill payments.
It is also disappointing to note that the Council seems to be oblivious of the
fact that the cholera outbreak was a result of acute water shortages; a
situation that Council is deliberately aggravating.

Residents demand order at Harare
Water. The water department must conduct meter readings and stop giving
residents bills that are based on estimates. The Association urges residents to
read their water and electricity meters as well as to keep a record of any bills
that they receive to use as reference points when conducting meter readings.
CHRA remains committed to advocating for good, transparent and accountable local
governance as well as lobbying for quality and affordable municipal services.

The goal in 2010 is food security

HARARE, 8 September 2009
(IRIN) - The government, NGOs and donor countries in Zimbabwe are rushing to
distribute agricultural inputs ahead of the summer rains, but ending donor
dependency and returning to food security in 2010 will still be a close-run
thing, analysts told IRIN.

In the first quarter of 2009 nearly seven
million Zimbabweans relied on emergency food aid; initial forecasts by aid
agencies are that about 2.8 million people will require food assistance in the
last few months leading up to the April 2010 harvest.

The unavailability
of agricultural inputs like seed and fertilizer during Zimbabwe's economic
implosion, as well as unseasonal dry spells, made the country - once known as
the breadbasket of southern Africa - dependent on food aid to stave off
starvation for several years.

Renson Gasela, agriculture secretary in
the break-away faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Arthur
Mutumbara, told IRIN there was a marked change from previous years in helping
farmers access inputs, but warned that the effort may have been left to late.
October is the main planting season.

"We are hearing discussions about
providing inputs to farmers at a much earlier stage than in previous years, but
one feels that this should have happened two or three months ago in order to
ensure that farmers are adequately prepared for the oncoming farming season,"
Gasela said.

The unity government of President Robert Mugabe, leader of
ZANU-PF, and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, recently
launched a US$210 million scheme targeting both small- and large-scale farmers
with subsidized inputs for the 2009/10 season, to be distributed through the 80
depots of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), a parastatal monopoly.

Vice-President Joyce Mujuru told residents of Murewa district in
Mashonaland East Province that the government placed great importance on
ensuring food security at "household level", and was working with NGOs to "make
sure that all intended beneficiaries get the inputs ... without favour on
political or any other grounds".

Corruption is so endemic in
Zimbabwe, and there are no reasons to assume that it will go away this time
around. There is a likelihood that those in influential positions, as has
happened in the past, will benefit at the expense of needy and vulnerable
farmers

She said the government scheme would be
complemented by other projects that would make inputs available to about a
million communal farmers, who produce around 70 percent of the country's
cereals.

On 8 August 2009 the state-run broadcaster announced that
fertilizer from South Africa was being transported to GMB depots for
distribution. The European Commission (EC) to Zimbabwe is to provide free seed
and 25 percent of the required fertilizer for about 180,000 rural farming
households.

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in July 2009 noted that "About 600,000 households
will be receiving agricultural input support from non-governmental organizations
and other humanitarian organizations." More than 10 NGOs pledged US$60 million
to provide inputs to cover two hectares for each family.

Gasela said the
US$210 million the government had set aside for inputs "sounds small to me,
considering that we have around 220,000 resettled and needy farmers", but "it is
bound to go a long way in addressing the problem of inputs shortages,
considering that farmers will also get free inputs from other ... [sources]".

Corruption

Gasela also had other concerns.
"Corruption is so endemic in Zimbabwe, and there are no reasons to assume that
it will go away this time around. There is a likelihood that those in
influential positions, as has happened in the past, will benefit at the expense
of needy and vulnerable farmers."

Thomas Sakarombe, 56, a farmer in
Mazowe district, about 40km east of the capital, Harare, told IRIN he intended
to put 60 hectares of his plot under maize and sorghum, but was struggling to
raise a loan to buy government-subsidised inputs.

It is a good thing that the
government has decided to sell inputs to us at half the price, but it looks like
the majority of farmers will have problems raising the money to buy the
fertilizer and seed that we need

He was recipient of the fast-track land
reform programme that began in 2000 and redistributed more than 4,000 white
commercial farms to landless blacks.

"It is a good thing that the
government has decided to sell inputs to us at half the price, but it looks like
the majority of farmers will have problems raising the money to buy the
fertilizer and seed that we need.

"Our farmers' unions have told us that
we can raise the money for the loan from banks, but when I visited my bank I was
referred from one branch to another ... The sticking point seems to be
collateral, as the bank is unwilling to accept the offer letter that I have,"
Sakarombe said.

The government issued letters to beneficiaries of the
land reform programme, conferring proof of formal occupation on the new farmers;
however, the land is on a 99-year government lease and banks are reluctant to
accept the land as collateral for loans.

NGOs struggle to
support farmers

Fambayi Ngirande, head of communications at the
National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), an umbrella body
for local NGOs, told IRIN that NGOs assisting farmers with inputs were
encountering financial obstacles, as food security was not the only
consideration.

"The NGO sector is finding it a bit difficult because of
low funding levels and overwhelming demands ... There is preoccupation with
meeting needs in such areas as school fees, feeding schemes for vulnerable
people and the fight against cholera, especially as the rains are about to
come," Ngirande said.

A cholera epidemic that lasted from August 2008
until July 2009 claimed more than 4,000 lives and afflicted nearly 100,000 other
people. Humanitarian workers expect the waterborne disease to return with the
rains.

[ENDS]

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]

Action
Still Needed In Zimbabwe

The Following
is an Editorial Reflecting the Views of the US Government

06 September 2009

September fifteenth
marks the first anniversary of Zimbabwe's Global Political Agreement, or
GPA, the hard-won accord aimed at ending the campaign of state-sponsored
violence surrounding last year's presidential election and paving the way
for a transitional government. While some progress has been made since the
opposition party joined the government, alongside the ruling ZANU-PF, more
reforms are still needed for the occasion to be worth
celebrating.

Despite the agreement, tensions amongst the parties are
rising as the government parties confront issues of power-sharing and
control of key ministries. Meanwhile, police, prosecutors and court
officials loyal to ZANU-PF continue politically motivated prosecutions of
opposition lawmakers and civil society members, while turning a blind eye to
human rights abuses by ruling party supporters.

The harsh treatment
that President Robert Mugabe and his loyalists meet out to their political
opponents has caused many in the international community, in previous years,
to cut some forms of development aid and apply targeted sanctions to Mugabe
and his inner circle.

While some argue that these targeted measures are
preventing Zimbabwe from rebuilding its demoralized government and shattered
economy, in actuality they serve to motivate change on the part of those who
have hindered democracy and abused human rights in Zimbabwe. To see those
targeted measures modified or eased, those affected must show by their
actions that they truly embrace democracy and reform.

The United
States welcomes recent statements by South African President Jacob Zuma
urging the parties to the GPA to resolve outstanding issues and fully
implement the agreement for the good of the Zimbabwean people. Indeed, the
U.S. wants to work with South Africa to advance democratic reform and ease
the suffering of all Zimbabweans.

PM Tsvangirai is not running a parallel government

The
Constitution of Zimbabwe,as amended by the Constitution of Zimbabwe
Amendment No.19, provides for the creation of the office of Prime
Minister.Clause 20.1.1 of Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.19 clearly
and unequivocally states that executive authority of the inclusive
government shall vest in,and be shared among the President,the Prime
Minister and the Cabinet.The Prime Minister is thus,constitutionally
empowered to exercise executive authority as well as to oversee the
formulation of Government policies by the Cabinet.Put simply,therefore,the
Prime Minister is the chief executive officer of the Cabinet.He occupies a
crucial and critical executive post that is tasked with ensuring that
policies that are formulated by the Cabinet are implemented by the entirety
of government.Zimbabwe is a constitutional republic whose affairs are to be
governed in accordance with the provisions of its written constitution;
which constitution has been amended a record nineteen (19) times since
independence in 1980.

In one of his usual acerbic aricles that are
posted on various websites and also in The Herald newspaper, Jonathan Moyo
makes the scandalous remark that '' the MDC-T is illegally running a
parallel government in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Office in which
civil servants who,like their peers in other Government offices are
remunerated a paltry monthly allowance that is no more than US$170 are also
paid salaries from foreign governments,some of which are as high as US$7000
a month.'' Whilst this wild allegation is as false as it is manifestly
scandalous and patently preposterous and mischievous; there is need to
further interrogate Jonathan Moyo's article and to ultimately locate the
exact reasons why Moyo is characteristically bitter and malicious.For the
benefit of the readership,let me categorically state that the Prime
Minister's Office has got a small professional bureaucracy that earns the
same salary as every civil servant.Contrast this fact with the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIO) bureaucracy in the President's Office whose exact
staffing levels are unquantified.Add to this the more than 13000 ghost
workers who are on the government's pay roll courtesy of ZANU (PF). It is
apparent that Jonathan Moyo is a very bitter man.For some strange reason,he
initially expected the MDC led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai to offer him a
safe political comfort zone that he will then use to selfishly advance his
chameleonic and Machiavellian proclivities.In essence, Moyo wanted to misuse
and abuse the good name and popularity of the MDC brand to advance his own
political ambitions; hoping that somehow he will find himself appointed a
Cabinet Minister.Perhaps,this was fortified by the apparently unwise move by
the MDC-T not to field a candidate to contest the Tsholotsho North House of
Assembly seat during the March 29,2008 harmonised elections.The MDC-T
thus,inadvertently contributed to the virtual political resurrection of
Jonathan Moyo.Had the MDC-T fielded a candidate to contest the Tsholotsho
North seat,this man would have been political history by now; he would have
been nowhere near the House of Parliament.After dismally failing to further
his political ambitions through a loose alliance with the MDC-T, Jonathan
Moyo then became extremely bitter and angry with the MDC leadership;
particularly with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Finance Minister
Tendai Biti; the undoubted top dogs in the party.This is what esssentially
informs Jonathan Moyo's recent vernom and anger against the MDC in general
and Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti in particular.Moyo's venomous attacks
against these two high-flying politicians is just but a manifestation of
personal anger,frustration,bitterness and a general deeply entrenched
malignancy.

In typical turncoat fashion, Jonathan Moyo is now courting
ZANU (PF).He has gone out of his way to assume the position of the
unofficial ZANU (PF) spokesperso. Of late,he is defending ZANU (PF) with his
usual effervescence and delirium.They can have him.Only time will tell how
dangerous it is to court this kind of character's '' comradeship''.Whilst
the MDC under the able leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai, has tried to follow
the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), ZANU (PF) has
engaged combat mode.The State-controlled media such as Zimpapers and the ZBC
have,of late, gone into overdrive demonising and generally trashing Prime
Minister Tsvangirai and the MDC.The issue of so-called '' illegal''
sanctions has all of a sudden regained centre stage.ZANU (PF) is refusing to
agree to the swearing in of Roy Bennett and the governors; allegedly because
the MDC has not done enough to have the so-called '' illegal'' sanctions
lifted.Lifted by whom and for whose benefit? The MDC is just a political
party.It is fallacious for any right-thinking person to assume that Morgan
Tsvangirai can just pick up the phone and '' instruct'' the European Union
and the USA to lift travel restrictions and other targeted restrictive
measures against some individuals in ZANU (PF).By refusing to fully
democratise the country in accordance with the basic tenets of the GPA, it
is ZANU (PF) and not the MDC, which is running a parallel government in
Zimbabwe.The MDC is not making '' noise'' over Gideon Gono and Johannes
Tomana.The MDC is raising genuine and legitimate transgressions of the
GPA.Both Gono and Tomana were unilaterally appointed by Mr.Robert Mugabe in
late 2008,long after the GPA had been solemnised on September 15,2008.For
anyone to,therefore, argue that Gono and Tomana are not outstanding issues
of the GPA is to completely miss the point.This type of sterile argument is
completely lacking in both factual and legal support.This argument ought to
be dismissed with the contempt that it deserves.

On a different
note,the State-controlled media has been,of late, celebrating Gideon Gono's
'' achievement'' in arranging for the advancement of the IMF loan in the sum
of US$510 million.If the truth be said this money is a poisoned chalice.In
previous articles,I have written extensively on how the Bretton Woods
institutions have pauperised and continue to pauperise developing countries
by confining them to a debt trap.Zimbabwe's domestic and external debt is
currently in excess of US$5 billion and we are struggling to repay this
debt; even the interest on the debt.IMF money, coming as a loan, is very
expensive money which Zimbabwe can ill-afford to use.There is always a catch
with these IMF loans.Chapter and verse, the nation must be told of the exact
details of the loan repayment conditions.How can an honest and caring
creditor demand that you repay outstanding interest on his old loan by using
money that he is advancing to you by way of a fresh loan? This is a debt
trap and Zimbabwe should immediately stop being excited about this money
from the IMF.Jonathan Moyo has trashed Finance Minister Biti on this
particular issue.Moyo alleges that '' Minister Biti has shown his mala
fides, to the point of seeking to block the unconditional funds due to
Zimbabwe from the IMF." I am unable to agree that Minister Biti has acted
irresponsibly.If anything,he is an erudite and results-oriented Finance
Minister who is honestly seeking to manage and administer the State's
coffers.For here we have a man with a razor-sharp intellect who is working
his socks off to ensure that Zimbabwe is not unnecessarily further burdened
by incurring huge and unsustainable loans from the Bretton Woods
institutions.At this critical juncture in it's reconstruction efforts,the
inclusive government in Zimbabwe can ill-afford expensive loans from loan
sharks such as the IMF.

The inclusive government has tremendous scope to
improve on its performance if all the contracting parties are motivated by
utmost good faith and genuine patriotism.By trivialising the Office of the
Prime Minister and generally seeking to demean both his person and the
office that he holds,the State-controlled media,aided and abetted by the
likes of Jonathan Moyo; is doing a major disservice to
nation-building.Morgan Tsvangirai is a brand; like him or hate him.The MDC,
being the largest and most popular political party in Zimbabwe today, is
here to stay.The MDC entered the inclusive government in order to save the
people of Zimbabwe from the gloom and despondency that had characterised
Zimbabwe for the past decade.The MDC never called for the imposition of
sanctions on Zimbabwe.By it's renegade,repressive and corrupt style of
governance, ZANU(PF) ostracised Zimbabwe from the comity of nations and
placed into the family of pariah states.It is not too late for ZANU (PF) and
its propagandists to mend their ways.

Why fight for a 'superfluous' job?

IN one country, the Vice-President is nicknamed 'Superfluous
Excellency'. In other countries, it is reckoned to be the most "useless" and
"thankless" job in the government. There are perks galore. But the glamour
must be a little difficult to enjoy: that tag of "uselessness" can leave the
nastiest taste in the mouth.

What DOES the Vice-President do? Act as
president in the president's absence? That cannot be often enough to keep
the vice-president busy.

A wise president, particularly an African
president, cannot afford to be absent from the country for too long at a
time.

There can be no guarantee that when he returns, his job would be
there for him. In Zimbabwe, there are two vice-presidents, something of a
distinction. One vice-president seems enough for one country. Two is
uniquely Zimbabwean, like using other countries' currencies as your
own.

One vice-president stands for Zanu PF and another for PF-Zapu. That
is the truth: After the Unity Accord of 1987, PF-Zapu was accommodated in
the Zanu PF government. Joshua Nkomo, the president of PF-Zapu, became the
second vice-president, both of the party, Zanu PF, and the
republic.

The first vice-president was Simon Muzenda, one of the most
faithful Mugabe allies in recent history.

Those who complained that
such fancy appointments were a drain on the national coffers were told to
shut up - or else.

The price of unity had to be paid. Nkomo, for a while,
earned the disaffection of most of his PF Zapu supporters. They said he had
sold out, as the job was cosmetic - superfluous. But Nkomo must have thought
of the 20 000 souls lost during Gukurahundi. The least he could do in their
memory was to make the Accord work.

Until now, all has been smooth
sailing: after Nkomo's death, Joseph Msika stepped into his shoes, which
fitted him snugly. There was no big fuss. In fact, there was a bigger fuss
when Muzenda died. Joice Mujuru did eventually step into his shoes, but she
must have felt one of them pinching her toes, rather painfully.

There
were contenders on the sidelines. There were not necessarily driven by male
chauvinism - Zanu PF has many, many male chauvinists. These were just very,
very power-hungry men.

After Msika's death, no-one could accurately
predict how smooth the transition would be - because PF Zapu was no longer
what it was during Nkomo's lifetime.

Dumiso Dabengwa, a distinguished
pillar of the party, had left the flock. He now heads a new Zapu. More
seriously, he supported Simba Makoni's presidential candidature. Even if the
former Minister of Finance got nowhere, Dabengwa's stock among opposition
supporters rose.

But in that case, how was he touted as a successor to
Msika as vice-president? They might have been luring him into a political
cul de sac. As vice-president of Zanu PF and the republic, he would
effectively be emasculated as any factor in the opposition
ranks.

That should have left the field clear for John Nkomo, who is
chairman of Zanu PF for a start. Surely, he would be a shoo-in for the
vice-presidency, wouldn't he? Then the plot thickened: There was an amazing
story of John Nkomo "doing a Banana". A man claimed he had lured him into a
gay liaison with Nkomo in a Bulawayo hotel.

But his supporters said
the critics had got it wrong: the man had mistaken Nkomo for Canaan Banana,
a convicted sodomist, and former ceremonial president. It was all a bit hard
to take at once. The stakes were high - that was for sure. There was a
readiness to throw in the kitchen sink. If things got any messier than they
were. The police were said to be involved. After a while, all was quiet on
that front. There were high stakes - political and otherwise.

For a
country in the midst of its greatest economic crisis since independence,
these politicians were playing what some would call really "dirty pool". But
this is par for the course in Zimbabwe. The politicians rarely take off
their brass knuckles to tackle ordinary people's problems. What they have is
a lot of time to engage in vicious slugfests - on their personal
behalf.

Where will it all end?

Meanwhile, have we or have we not
been bailed out by the IMF? Who is the Knight in shining armour who
convinced that champion of capitalism to give us US$500 million? Gideon Gono
or Tendai Biti? Gono must have done it all on the telephone or on the
Internet. Is he free to go to New York any time he wishes? Biti can go there
any day. But Gono is a wily one. But Biti is no slouch either, when it comes
to sealing the thunder on the international front from the
governor.

The men have been engaged in this hammer-and-tongs duel for
quite a while. It's a duel primarily for the control of the country's
economic destiny. At some point, perhaps even by chance, the duel touches on
the well-being of the people. But most of the time, it revolves around who
can score more points than the other. In a way, it's almost a replica of the
duel between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.

All four men, in essence, should be driven by the task of
pulling the country out of its mess. But as politicians they probably cannot
help glancing, once in a while at the popularity charts. Are they leading or
are they slipping? In a crude sort of way, we are, the people, are the
hostages: whoever presents us with a chance to escape the quagmire will win
our support. He will be on the top of the charts. In an even cruder
.interpretation we are the cannon fodder.

But it's dangerous to go
there. Our cynicism would lead us to abandon all hope and to concentrate
only on how we can overcome our problems, in spite of the efforts to solve
them, collectively. That would lead to the end of our active participation
in politics. We could end up on the sidelines, on the outside looking in and
not being involved.

For instance, how many of us really care who becomes
the vice-president? What material difference would it make to our plight who
lands the job - John Nkomo, Dumiso Dabengwa, Nicholas Ncube or Obert Mpofu?
There is no active debate on the subject on the commuter omnibuses or in the
pubs and bars or at t the women's club meetings. We are all, it seems, past
caring. It's dangerous, in the end.

We do care, fortunately, who
will, in the end, trust with our destiny after all the dust has settled. In
nearly 30 years of independence, most people must have an idea of a period
when things were really thriving, when independence was "sweet". It probably
differs from person to person and from region to region. But it definitely
could have had nothing to do with who was vice-president at the
time.

There are people we all remember as having featured in government
for so long, we cannot think of a time when they were on the sidelines,
uninvolved. They were in the thick of it: their faces are familiar, even
their voices are familiar. In some cases, what they said at a particular
time can still be remembered clearly.

They may not have been
vice-presidents. But their positions were not superfluous. Their actions had
a definite bearing on our lives. It's important to remember, when the time
comes, why we should not have them at the top of the decision-making pile.
That's what real politics is about.

The
fat-cats are busy building before things go bust

It appears that Harare is entering a building boom; one wonders where all the
money is coming from?

This question gains in exponential significance when you hear who is behind
the potential projects. I was with friends the other evening who told me that
they had gone to the bank to investigate the low interest loans made available
through external sources for development in Zimbabwe. Apparently the bank
official laughed and said all the funds had already been grabbed by Zanu
sychophants. No surprises there.

On the Borrowdale Road, Targon Construction is busy bulldozing and clearing
virgin land to build there. In normal circumstances a billboard would be erected
outlining the project, the partners and giving the council details, but no such
board is in place.

This land is meant to be designated green belt, but that has never worried
the fat cat chefs in our country.

Indeed, this particular bit of green belt is the catchment area for the Mazoe
River - development should never be allowed so as to protect this fragile
environment, especially considering the dire water conditions in Harare. When
the City council valuator was called about the project, he emphatically stated
that no permission has been given for it. He claimed that his department had
sent a letter denying permission to the developers.

The council has inspected the site but the urban planning department is yet
to take action.

But I somehow doubt anything will be done to stop the project. Targon is
owned by the infamous Supa Mandiwanzira and he is apparently backed by the
delightful entrepreneur Philip Chiyangwa. Chiyangwa appeared on ZTV last week
looking bizarrely banana like in a yellow suit, talking about his drive to
develop Harare. There is strong talk that Chiyangwa is a very busy man, taking
over premises all over the capital.

The Borrowdale Rd is set to be a hive of activity. OK bazaars are apparently
looking to build a shopping mall there in the near future. They will be in
direct competition with shopping professional Grace Mugabe, who has apparently
blocked a project submitted by a school to build on council land in the
Borrowdale Rd vicinity, as she is apparently intending to build a shopping
centre on that land! I wonder if she is intending to invite the big name labels
to open in her mall so she does not have to travel far to satisfy her retail
therapy needs.

Now go to the city centre and you hear stories from residents around Park St
that they have been told that they have no choice but to sell their commercial
properties to NSSA. This organisation is particularly odious as they have for
years demanded payment from our impoverished work force and rarely pay out
benefits to their victims. Now the rumour is they are going to build a shopping
mall opposite their offices.

Apparently this new shopping centre project is being carried out with city
council collusion under the directive from our illustrious Minister, Ignatius
Chombo.

Really, how many shops are needed in Harare?

This entry was posted by Still Here on
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 1:58 pm